Overview

Version 4.5.x and later of the CrashPlan app on Linux requires an operating system that uses Linux kernel version 2.6.32 or later (including glibc 2.9 or later). If your distribution and version of Linux use an older kernel, your CrashPlan app cannot back up.

Affects

Devices that use both of the following:

CrashPlan app version 4.5.x and later

A version of Linux that uses version 2.6.31 or earlier of the Linux kernel (including a version of glibc version 2.8 or earlier), such as:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

CentOS 5

Debian 5

Ubuntu 9 and earlier

Diagnosing

The CrashPlan app may display the message Waiting for backup. You may also see the following error in your CrashPlan app's engine_error.log:

The location of engine_error.log varies by distribution. On a default Ubuntu installation, it is stored in /usr/local/crashplan/log.

Recommended solution

To continue using up-to-date versions of CrashPlan, we recommend upgrading your operating system to a supported version of the Linux kernel.

For instructions on upgrading your Linux device, refer to the documentation for your device or your Linux distribution.

Alternative solution

If you cannot upgrade your operating system, you may choose to install an earlier version of the CrashPlan app that supports older Linux kernels.

Use at your own risk To ensure your CrashPlan app has the latest security and stability enhancements, we recommend using the latest version of the CrashPlan app. Our Customer Champions cannot assist you with known bugs or issues in earlier versions of the CrashPlan app, so you assume all risk of unintended behavior.

Considerations

Upgrades

For CrashPlan for Home, CrashPlan for Small Business (previously CrashPlan PRO), and public cloud deployments of Code42 for Enterprise:

If you install an earlier version of the CrashPlan app on a device that supports a later version, the CrashPlan app is automatically upgraded when you open the app.

Code42 prevents devices using kernel version 2.6.31 or earlier from upgrading to an unsupported version of the CrashPlan app.

In a Code42 for Enterprise deployment with a private authority server, upgrading your Code42 environment to version 5.1 or later can cause even devices with unsupported kernel versions to be upgraded to version 4.5.x or later of the CrashPlan app. To avoid this, you must either:

If you back up data from one device to another device (rather than to the Code42 cloud or an Code42 server), both devices must use the same version of the CrashPlan app.

If one of your devices is prevented from upgrading but your other devices will be automatically upgraded as normal, your computer-to-computer backups may not function as expected. This is expected behavior for mismatched versions of the CrashPlan app.